In May, 2,000 prisoners were exchanged between Ukraine and Russia as part of the June 2 agreements. For Russian soldiers, the family box is not part of the return process in their country.
A difficult return to Russia. In May, 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers were exchanged for 1,000 Russian soldiers, as part of agreements between kyiv and Moscow. The two countries have achieved the biggest exchange of prisoners since the start of the war. However, the Russian soldiers would not have had time to find their family after their captivity, which they would have already been sent to the front, reveals the independent Russian media Okho.
On June 9, an exchange with the wife of a Russian war prisoner was published on the Telegram Mobilization channel. She urges the authorities to release her husband, as required by the law. This testimony confirms that prisoners of war cannot find their family, before being sent directly to the front.
The injured back on the front
The testimony of this woman increases the sentence of the families of soldiers. Indeed, since the start of the armed conflict in February 2022, Russia remains silent as for the fate of these soldiers. To counterbalance this silence, Ukraine created, in August 2023, a project “I Want To Find” (I would like to find) to help Russian families to discover if their loved one is captured or deceased.
This initiative helped many people like Yana, the sister of a Russian soldier hired in May 2024 and disappeared since June 24, 2024. No more sign of life, she tried to contact all the soldiers and authorities she has, without result. She then turned to the Ukrainian project: “Finally, I received a message informing me that I had to expect good news. This is where I learned that my brother was alive ”.
Even if Yana was able to find the trace of her brother, Kirill, that did not allow him to see him again. Indeed, placed on the prisoners’ lists to exchange after having promised Ukraine not to return to the front, Kirill is exchanged on May 6, 2025. His family is informed, but the soldier was not allowed to return home, not even a day. Instead, he was sent to Moscow for several interrogations, before finding Ukraine.
According to several of his comrades, Kirill had a stay in a psychiatric hospital after trying to commit suicide and had a nervous breakdown linked to the conditions on the front.
Rather stay captive than return to the forehead
The captive soldiers are then clear: prefer to stay captive rather than return to the forehead. Many Russian prisoners observe this conclusion. As Tatyana, mother of a 20 -year -old soldier, details: “They let me speak to him once. He has been in captivity since April 2025. He said to me “if they condemn me, I would prefer to serve a sentence of three to seven years, but I will not return to the front” “.
As for Marina, a soldier’s wife, she confides: “I can’t help but think that as long as he is there, he is safe. He says that they do not torture him and that he will survive ”.
Many human rights defenders recall article 117 of the Geneva Convention: “no repatriates can be employed at active military service”. However, neither Russia nor Ukraine respect this rule of the convention on prisoners of war published in 1949.
Alexey, a Russian soldier, details this maneuver made by the Russian government since the start of the armed conflict with Ukraine: “Each contract with the Russian Defense Ministry is now indefinite. There is a flaw in Russian legislation: in the absence of official break and in the absence of active hostilities, prisoners of war remain considered as active soldiers. This means that captivity alone is not a reason for demobilization ”.
Thanks to this clause, the Russian army continuously uses its soldiers, despite the injuries, despite captivity and despite permissions, in order to feed the front in Ukraine. The objective is always to have the territory recognized by Russia as its international as its international.